Tree Work 301

It has been quite a while since the last post, it is not that I haven't accomplished anything, just that my accomplishments are more in tune with nature. I have been working out in the yard and my garden and playing a little golf. Faye and I have also made a few trips to Indy to visit and see everyone, and then typhoid Faye hit not once but twice so we have battled a little illness too. Perhaps you can tell by the title of this blog I have been perfecting my tree fabricating skills, and feel like I am getting close to them being good. I will include some pictures so you can see how I have done. I figure that I have probably built quite a few prototypes that didn't measure up, I didn't keep track of the failures but let me say they have been numerous. I owe a lot of what you see to the wonderful invention of the internet, you can find any information you desire there and I have combined several techniques I found and tweaked them to the way I wanted to build my trees. I am not sure how many trees I will need for the L & B but they are something I can work on upstairs for the most part and don't need to be exiled in the basement all of the time. I am actually pretty proud of the results of the fir trees in the pictures they are pretty realistic I think. The top picture is the wire armature that I have "painted" with a tinted mixture of plaster of paris with white glue mixed in, and the others are different views of the first three finished success stories. Let me know what your opinion is or if you have any ideas to improve on what you see. Until the next time!

Recession has hit the Railroad

Sorry if you have been financially affected by the recession, but then who hasn't when I think about it. My philosophy is to make light of serious things and perhaps they won't seem as bad. The only recession that has actually hit the railroad is a slowdown in the time I have been spending working on it. I would post some pictures but the differences are too subtle and they would not reveal much. The underlying reason for the work slow down is not a general labor strike or anything ( more humor), I have just been busy in other areas. You might ask for an accounting or you may not care but I will give one any way. First I have been obsessed with a computer that suddenly decided it was missing a registry file, I spent way too many hours trying to restore it and finally gave up and reinstalled windows. Second the weather and time of year are ganging up on me and I have had to spend quite a bit of time outside doing yard work, I am not complaining, I enjoy this labor so I am stating fact. Thirdly my loving wife finally decided on a color to paint the kitchen so we painted it which led to me painting the laundry room yesterday and that led to a general sorting out of the shelves in there and scrubbing the floor as I moved appliances. I realize that I have been wordy and if you are reading this saying to yourself I don't care but I am not twisting the proverbial arm and making you read this so if you are still reading and don't want to be shame on you for not having the will power to stop. Plus I am setting here getting a bit of a private chuckle thinking of you reading this and saying to yourself what am I wasting my time on. Then the third reason behind the work slow down getting back on the original subject is once again weather related and it is now nice enough for me to spend way too much time chasing that little white ball around the converted cow pasture. What? Playing golf is one of my vices which as I age my vices seem to become fewer and tamer, not a bad thing either because most of my vices in my earlier years were unhealthy to say the least. I have rambled on far too long, so I am going to draw to a close and get back to work on the railroad! Later Gator.

I've Been Working on the Railroad

These are the latest pictures of the L&B Railroad taken tonight. The kids were here for Easter last weekend and Miss Abb's and I worked a little on the scenery together on Saturday. I am working on making trees to add to the layout and also starting some building construction. I have laid a few pieces of cork rail-bed and will lay some more as soon as I am able to buy some. I am really enjoying the time I am spending on the layout and find it therapeutic. Well here are the pictures.

L & B Railroad update!

Here are a few of the latest pictures of progress on the railroad. I couldn't get a picture of the color on the mountains that was true to the actual colors I have painted. My less than expert opinion is the lighting I am using which is mostly florescent with halogen spots. I do know florescent lights play havoc with camera colors. I read somewhere the key to realistic looking mountains in your scenery is using several colors and thinning the paint to the point that it is more a wash than a paint. I have used five colors with a black over-wash to dull the colors back. So here is the result just keep the lighting in mind. The bridge piers are a work in progress but you get the idea. I have also been producing doll house furniture, Abb's is coming to visit next weekend and I hopefully will have some new pieces for her to play with.

UPDATE!

This an L&B Railroad update! Things in the basement are progressing quite well. I have been spending a couple of hours a day down there working between the railroad and making furniture for the doll house. I will add a couple of pictures of the rail progress to show the progress. I am spending a lot of time on it because as the weather improves I will probably spend less time down there and more time outside. I joined the church golf league and that will take Monday evenings starting April 20th, but that is a good thing. I will update again as I progress and remember to document the progress with pictures. I was hoping to be a bit more on the ball and take pictures more often, but I get involved and time flies and yada yada yada excuses, I just don't get the pictures taken. There just isn't enough time in the day for all my activities, work, and yuck sleep, what a waste of time sleep is! That's all folks as the cartoons used to say.

The Secret is Out

The Indianapolis crew was here last weekend and the project I have been working on for the last year was presented to Miss Abby. I will include a couple of pictures I snapped when she first spied it. I think she liked it! There isn't much furniture yet but as you can see from the last picture she got busy moving and playing with what there was. I am also including the latest updates on the L&B Railroad build. It is coming along well I have actually started building the tunnel portals and the retaining walls for the mountains and hills. Tonight I added some more roadbed to the grades leading to the mountains, although there aren't any pictures of that. I had to hurry upstairs to catch the beginning of my favorite tv show NCIS.

The Latest Project

I actually started this project a while ago. It has been a couple of years because it entailed first finishing part of the basement in preparation, then building what is known as the bench-work. Then finalizing the layout and finally building it. Guess what I am doing yet. It is not as common a hobby as it was in the past and it is something I have always wanted to do. I can remember my Great Uncle Louis having one in his basement but it is not a very vivid memory. Ok I am building a model train layout in HO scale. It will be complete with mountain lake town and factory/train yard. I have been planning it out in my head and on paper now for quite a while . I am limited by the shape of my basement and must put the layout up against the wall which is not recommended but can be done. I am going to document it with pictures and will post them here from time to time. If anyone has a suggestion I am open for constructive criticism. It is getting late and past my bedtime. I won't get as much reading in tonight as I would like but I was downstairs most of the evening working on my two projects. The other project must remain a secret until it is unveiled to Miss Abby, because it is for her and Lily. It will be presented to Abb's though since Lily is too small yet, and I can hardly wait to present it to her. Any way here are the first pictures of the train layout.